Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Esper, Dwain
- Abstract:
- This collection primarily contains material belonging to movie producer and director Dwain Esper and his wife Hildagarde, including photographs, correspondence, business records, and advertisements, many of which are connected to Esper's movies and career.
- Extent:
- 1.8 linear feet (2 document boxes and 1 oversize flatbox)
- Language:
- Materials are in English.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Dwain Esper Papers (Collection 2301). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection consists of correspondence, legal and copyright material, photographs, and advertisements related to Dwain Esper's films, and well as business and financial records. Also present are some personal papers and photographs, as well as two sex education booklets by Hildagarde Esper. There is no material in this collection related to the film Reefer Madness.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Dwain Esper (1892-1982) was an American producer and director of exploitation films including Narcotic (1933), Maniac (1934), Marihuana (1936), and Sex Madness (1938). He is best-known as producer/distributor of the cult classic Reefer Madness (1936). In 1920, Esper married Hildagarde Stadie (1895-1993), who also wrote some of his movies.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Francis M. Woods and Kimberly Douglas, 2014.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Anh Kiet Ngo, under the supervision of Melissa Haley.
Several credit card receipts were deaccessioned from collection.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's Library Collections and Archives.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is organized into the following series:
- Series 1. Film-related papers
- Series 2. Business records
- Series 3. Personal material
- Series 4. Photographs
- Series 5. Advertisements
- Series 6. Books
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
- Subjects:
- Exploitation films
- Names:
- Esper, Hildagarde
Renay, Liz
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Dwain Esper Papers (Collection 2301). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988